CHESTER -- When LaKendra Renee Dye's mother died in July, the 16-year-old Lancaster High School student pressed on with life.
She excelled in school and was a regular on the sidelines when the football team took the field.
But Friday, just hours before the kickoff of another football game, a collision with a pickup truck ended Dye's life.
"I was so proud of her," said Lynette Stover, Dye's aunt. "She's endured a lot. She was very strong. Since her mother passed, she was like my child."
Now, for the second time in less than six months, Dye's family is planning a funeral and clinging to memories.
"I always made banana pudding. That was her favorite," Stover said. "Every time, she came to my house, she thought she was supposed to have a spread."
Stover last saw her niece Tuesday, and the two talked about the presidential election.
"She talked about Obama," Stover recalled. "She wanted him to win."
On Friday, after a visit to her grandmother's house in Great Falls, Dye was returning to Lancaster with a friend when the wreck happened around 4:45 p.m., Stover said.
Authorities say the Crown Victoria that Dye was driving went off the right shoulder along S.C. 97. She overcorrected, crossed the center line and struck a pickup truck driven by a 57-year-old Blackstock man, according to the S.C. Highway Patrol.
That driver, who wore a seat belt, was transported to Chester Regional Center, where he was treated and released, according to the Highway Patrol.
Shelley Cherry of Lancaster, Dye's 19-year-old passenger, was airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, according to the Highway Patrol. No information was available Saturday night on Cherry's condition.
As Dye's family mourned Saturday, they also remembered her teenage antics.
"She would call and play on my cell phone, acting like she was someone else and making me mad," said KaQuisha Stover, 20, Dye's cousin. "Then she'd say, 'Ahh girl, this is Kendra.'... No matter where she went, she always had a smile on her face."
Family members said Dye was an honor student, who had not yet decided which college she wanted to attend.
"She was a wonderful person," said Lancaster school district spokesman David Knight. "She will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."
Dye is the second person with a connection to Lancaster High School to die in a wreck in recent weeks. On Oct. 24, Johntavis Lamar Campbell, an 18-year-old Lancaster High graduate, died in a single-car crash in Lancaster.
So far this year, more than 760 people have died on South Carolina roads, according to the state highway safety office. That's down from more than 900 people who died on state roads through the same time last year.
